Click here to go to the video on YouTube in order to enter.

So, what are these radical new design changes? Well, there are many. HTC are still sticking to their unibody guns, just a little differently than before. Take the Sensation for example. It hard a removable unibody shell that was a mixture of metals and plastics. It didn’t look that great and it felt somewhat tacky. HTC have redone what was created badly before. The handset is now a sealed enclosure, one slab of matte grey polycarbonate encapsulates a 4.7″ contoured hunk of second generation Gorilla Glass. Hiding behind the shine is a 720p HD Super IPS LCD2 display, capacitive to the touch of course. The sides of the device are glossy, while the base is almost rubber in texture. It is solid, and it feels good.

Both the earpiece and the loudspeaker are integrated into the body. Precision drilled holes ensure that sound can travel freely. The look of the device is uninterrupted, thanks to it’s sealed nature. A Micro-Sim tray is visible along the top of the handset, close to the power switch. Along one side, a Micro USB port. On the adjacent, a volume bar. On the rear, a Pogo port – a 5 pin drop in connector for docks.

Underneath all of this polycarbonate goodness we are in store for more surprises. To process our Android wares HTC has included a nVidia Tegra 3 processor. Clocked at 1.5GHz over four cores, coupled with 1GB of RAM, this phone is not a slouch. Memory wise we see a large 32GB of storage, with 26GB available after formatting.

The screen looks fantastic. If you are going to be impressed with one feature while using this handset, the display will be that feature. The 720p resolution gives the handset a pixel density of 316ppi. It is super sharp, crisp and full of colour. The display is glued to the glass itself with a minimal gap in-between which gives it an excellent appearance.

Viewing angles are excellent, the display is similar to an AMOLED display in that respect. Text and colours do not alter in appearance at any angle and never cease to be visible. Brightness is excellent, indoors the phone still automatically sets the brightness (by users choice) to a reasonable level. Outside in the sun, the brightness has to be maxxed out, but when it is it is very visible and completely usable. Colours are reproduced accurately. Our model has a warmer display, full whites on the display have a noticeable yellow tinge to them but colours are vibrant and saturated.

See part II of our review which will cover the Camera, Performance and Battery Life.

Initial Impressions

When I first visited their website I was very impressed, it looked clean and organised and was written in good English.  There are a couple of broken links here and there (simply link to an empty anchor) but other than that I was very pleased with what I saw.  My first port of call was the “VPS Hosting” page where I was presented with three different plans (although they say that you can contact them for custom plans).  The plans seemed very well specified with excellent value for money.

Signup Process

I originally decided to setup my VPS with Windows Server 2008 R2, At the time of signing up, this cost extra however they were happy to install it for free using my own licence that I provided to them.  Due to the VPS being a custom install, they advised that it may take a few hours before it was ready, at this time I went to bed and by the time I got back online, my VPS was ready for action!  When signing up there are several add-ons that can be purchased for very reasonable prices, these can be seen in the section below, I did not need any add-ons so I continued without any.

Operating System Selection

Corgi Tech provide a decent variety of different operating systems that can be installed:

• CentOS 5.x
• CentOS 6.x
• Ubuntu Desktop 11.x
• Ubuntu Server 11.x
• Debian 6.x
• Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard Edition (At extra cost)
• Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition (At extra cost)

They also allow you to request another OS as long as it is free and publicly available.  They also allow either 32bit or 64bit versions of the OS (Operating System Dependant).

Add-Ons

Corgi Tech offer a wide range of add-ons at purchase time, note that the prices below are accurite at the time of writing this article and are subject to change.

• Extra IP Addresses (Up to 2 for a total of 3 IPs) – $3 /month each
• Cpanel/WHM – $20 /month
• Managed Services – $50 /month
• Dedicated Managed Firewall – $25 /month

They also allow the connection to be changed from the standard 100Mbit Metered connection:

• 1Gbit Metered connection – $10 /month
• 100Mbit Unmetered – $149 /month
• 10Mbit Unmetered – FREE (Only available on the Ultimate plan)

Switching Operating System

I later decided to switch my VPS from Windows Server 2008 R2 to CentOS 6.x in order to free up disk space.  I had originally signed up with a voucher code that had since expired yet they were happy to set me up a second CentOS 6.x VPS at the discounted price to allow me to transfer my information over as long as I paid for another month of hosting which I was happy to do.  They were also happy to create a snapshot of a clean install on my VPS and store it for up to 72 hours to allow me to restore the VPS if something went wrong while setting up the web server.  I was then able to copy the websites over to the new VPS without any problems or downtime.

Support

One of the things that impressed me so much about Corgi Tech is their support, this is also one of the reasons I prefer smaller companies, they treat you like a human rather than just a generic customer.  Since getting the VPS I have had to contact them about several changes and enquiries and all my enquiries have been answered in under an hour, usually within a matter of minuets (During daytime in the UK).  They also offer live support which has also been very prompt at responding.

Corgi Tech’s Website

The Corgi Tech website looks good and is very easy to navigate although it does feel a bit as though it is still under development with a few placeholder links such as the Facebook link in the footer as well as a few others.  When in the client area, the “Flash Tutorials” link is also inactive and the knowledgebase is currently empty.  However, the website is still perfectly useable and we suspect that these faults will be rectified shortly.  Also note that to use the live chat, you need to click the “Live Chat” button in the top right of the website the “24×7 Online Support” link in the sidebar links to the website of the chat provider rather than directly to the chat system.

Performance

Even the basic VPS performs really well under both CentOS and Windows Server 2008 R2, slighly faster under CentOS due to lower overheads.  I was also very impressed with the network speed, downloading packages to set up the server was blindingly quick (at first I though the download had failed as it was so quick) and uploading files over FTP is very fast too.  Websites also load very quickly, even those with large images and complex PHP scripts.  This website is hosted on a CentOS based VPS from Corgi Tech, and as you can see, it runs very fast, especially for a website with a lot of content!

Packages

Corgi Tech offer a wide variety of different preset packages, these can be viewed on their website: http://www.corgitech.com/linux_vps.html.  They can also offer a custom designed package if you contact them.

All packages include the following as standard for free:

• 1 Free IP Address
• VMware web control panel (vSphere) – Allows remote control and monitoring of the VPS
• Full Root/Administrator access to your VPS
• Free Setup
• RAID 1+0 Storage

Get Windows Server 2008 R2 Free for a Limited Time

At the time of writing, Corgi Tech are currently offering Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard for free across all of their VPS plans.  They have not published an expiration date on this offer so be quick!  Be sure to check that the price does not increase when choosing Windows as this may mean that this offer has expired.

Other Services

Corgi Tech also offer cPanel based shared web hosting for very reasonable prices and by the looks of their website, they seem to be planning to offer Minecraft hosting soon.  We have not tried these yet so are unable to comment on their performance.

Overall

Despite the buggy website, we are unable to fault Corgi Tech.  All their VPS packages provide excellent performance and value for money.  Their customer support is some of the best I have ever seen and they provide all the features you would expect, even from a more expensive VPS provider.  Overall we really recommend Corgi Tech.  Review This is hosted on a Corgi Tech VPS and as you can see, it is very fast, especially for such a content filled website!

Review:

Unboxing:

Unboxing:

Review:

http://www.sony.co.uk/product/tv-55-22-lcd/kdl-22ex320

Unboxing:

Review:

http://www.google.com/nexus/

Unboxing:

Review:

Video Quality Test:

http://www.three.co.uk/Devices/HTC/Sensation/Standard

Unboxing:

Review:

In this video we unbox the long awaited AMD FX-8150 8-Core Bulldozer CPU.

http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/processors/amdfx/Pages/amdfx.aspx?&lid=Get_8_Cores

So. You’ve thrown down megabucks to secure yourself the latest technological marvel. It’s shiny, it’s sleek, it’s fast and it’s perfect. It’s also extremely fragile. It’s constructed from the latest aerospace materials which make it impervious to damage, but with our back luck, it will probably end up being damaged in some way before you’ve even taken it out of the box. (Yes, this has happened to me).

In all seriousness though, you will most likely want to protect your new device in some way. Some will go for screen protectors, others will get cases. A lot will do both. Today, we are looking at cases – and the folks at Snugg have been kind enough to give us a taster of what they have to offer. We will be looking at their ‘iPhone 4/4S Jibitz Case’, read in tomorrow to find the review of their ‘Blue Denim’ kindle offering.

Jibitz;

Luckily, the day I received this case was the day I upgraded to an iPhone 4. There are things I love about this case, and things I dislike. These may be personal to me though. So I’ll tell you what I think, and you can take what you want from this.

The Jibitz case is constructed from a very resilient but soft silicone blend. It comes in blue and blue only. It has cutouts for all of the main ports and switches. The silent mode rocker, usually an annoyance with cases, is easily accessible – even my chunky fingered friend had no difficulties flicking it! Volume selection is handled by two bumps in the silicone which are easy to find by feel when not looking at the phone. The headphone jack has a hole made for it, along with the noise cancellation mic. The silicone is quite thick, so there is a bit of distance from the hole to the headphone jack. The hole should be wide enough to fit most headphone connectors, but those with extra wide plastics on their 3.5mm may find troubles when trying to connect (although I have had none). Both the speaker and mic on the base of the phone have wide openings, and all sizes of aftermarket Apple connectors should fit into the cases wide opening fine. I tried the case in an aftermarket dock of mine, the dock connected fine while the phone was inside.

The silicone is thick. It adds some bulk to the phone. It’s not too bad though. I love that it gives me something sturdy to grip, and the corners of the phone are very well protected. This thing will withstand drops and offers very good scratch protection. One of the main selling points of the case is the supposed ability to customize and individualize the case through arrangement of silicone letters on the rear of the handset. In theory, this should be a fun feature, especially for young Teens and Kids, but there are a few caveats to this idea. Firstly, you only get one individual A-Z – so writing common words/phrases or names which use a letter more than once can be troublesome (The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog, anyone?). Luckily, having these doesn’t detract from its ability as a case. The bumps on the back add thickness, yes, but it offers another layer of protection to the rear-side of the handset if you just so happen to lay it down a tad too hard. The squares stay in place too, so you are not going to be annoyed having these bits falling out every time you use your iPhone. I did find, though, that in taking the handset in and out of the case, this would cause the white silicone surround for the camera port to fall out. There are no user replaceable camera port inserts included with the case, so it cannot be customized, only lost.

The issue;

There are only two issues with this case, sadly both are common within cases. This case suffers from the Halo’ing problem on the iPhone 4. When you take a still or video with the LED flash, it bounces off the case surrounding the lens and casts a very thick blue haze over the photo – almost opaque. Sadly this is common with silicone iPhone 4 cases, even taking the previously mentioned insert out of the case fails to solve the issue. The other issue is mainly personal to me and my choice of usage and clothing, and again is universal to most silicone cases. When the phone is removed from a pocket or tight piece of clothing, the case is exceptionally grippy and pulls my pocket and its contents out along with it. This grippy-ness is excellent when actually holding the case though, as accidentallydropping it is no longer an issue. Again, you will know if this is an issue for you or not.

In conclusion, the case is good. My friends love the design, they couldn’t work out what I was using from a distance until they came and saw that it was my iPhone. It looks different. Even if you don’t customize the rear-side, it is very individual. The colour is nice and the protection is good.

~ The Snugg Jibitz case is available direct through Amazon at a price of £19.99 or through Snugg themselves. ~

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